Warrior the missing on loan thoroughbred gelding has been found safe and well in Yorkshire, despite being told he was put down last winter and was aged 30. His new "owner" had taken the time to investigate the brand on his shoulder and discovered he was a 19 year old New Zealand thoroughbred, with exhausting inquiries by ourselves we finally received the call we had all been waiting for last week. Warrior has luckily been looked after by a horse rescue charity Roleystone Charity, they had tried desperately to contact the previous owner in the passport, unfortunately thy had moved and not changed address (something we should all remember to do)

Pepsy, the show cob that we also recently recovered was sold on loan by the same person, As this was her first offence she only received a caution which would remain on file for 5 years, if she was charged with the same offence in this time she could face a prosecution.

We need a successful prosecution to highlight the growing trend in selling horses on loan. The market is flooded with unwanted horses, with the current economic market many owners cannot sell horses they can no longer afford to keep, and many loan them to homes which are being snapped up by unscrupulous people who sell them without a second thought. The fact that it's a minor crime within the legal system (although us horse owners don't feel so) it's not a priority, if you can get your local police force to take it on, it often goes beyond them and is dropped by the CPS, we can't always blame the police.

In every case of theft the dishonest appropriation must be accompanied by the intention of permanently depriving the owner of his property. A person appropriating property belonging to another without meaning the other permanently to lose the thing itself is nevertheless to be regarded as having the intention of permanently depriving the other of it if his intention is to treat the thing as his own to dispose of regardless of the other’s rights; and a borrowing or lending of it may amount to so treating it if, but only if, the borrowing or lending is for a period and in circumstances making it equivalent to an outright taking or disposal. Without prejudice to the generality of the above provisions, where a person, having possession or control, whether lawfully or not, of property belonging to another, parts with the property under a condition as to its return which he may not be able to perform, this amounts, if done for purposes of his own and without the other’s authority, to treating the property as his own to dispose of regardless of the other’s right.